A great many people may now be
said to know something about Christian Science. They know that many have been
healed by it; that many have been made more useful men and women since becoming
Christian Scientists: better husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, children,
neighbors, friends, citizens. Many reputable doctors
now acknowledge that Christian Science heals, and recommend it to patients whom
they cannot cure. Many clergymen acknowledge that it is reforming a great many
people, and that it is accomplishing a great deal of good in the world. But
because most people are still unacquainted with the method by which these good
works are brought about, with the teachings and application of Christian
Science, its good works are still quite frequently attributed to other causes
than that of which they are the demonstration and result, — to other causes
than to the power of God and of His Christ. The reason, it is but fair to
assume, is not always the desire to be unjust to Christian Science. For
generations upon generations people have become so used to trusting only
material means to overcome troubles and to restore and maintain health, and so
disused to trusting God to help them that they find it difficult, if not
impossible, to believe the Bible promises and assurances that God is "a
very present help in trouble;" that He "healeth all thy
diseases," and that in reality it is God who does so whether He is
credited with doing it or not. Nor can the prevalent distrust in God be looked
upon as strange when the training and customs of mankind through centuries upon
centuries are taken into account: for, as Shakespeare said, "Use almost
can change the stamp of nature," — and the true nature of man is to trust God.

Knowledge of God Necessary

How is it then, if the true
nature of man is to trust God, that men have strayed
so far from man's real nature? How is it that men have strayed from relying
fully and implicitly upon "Him whom to know aright is Life eternal"
(Science and Health, Pref., p. vii); upon Him whom the great Master called
"Our Father"? Because, to quote that great Master, "the world
hath not known thee" — God. Because the world has had a mere belief about
God instead of a knowledge of Him, a belief that has made it and must continue
to make it most difficult — indeed impossible — to trust in God in times of
trial and distress; for to trust implicitly in God, a knowledge of Him is
necessary. Jesus had this knowledge. His own words, "The world hath not
known thee: but I have known thee," plainly show this fact. It was because
he knew God that he was not only able to trust Him, but to demonstrate His
all-beneficent power.

The word science is derived the
Latin scientia, knowledge. If Jesus the Christ knew God, as he said that he
did, and as all of us admit, does it not follow that his knowledge of God
constituted his Science, the Christ Science, or Christian Science? And if it
was necessary for Jesus to know God in order to demonstrate God's power, is it
not necessary that his followers have the Christ Science, or Christian Science,
in order to be able to do likewise?

But some may say. "Was that
all that Jesus knew?" Yes, that was all that Jesus knew; and it was
because God. who is infinite good, was all that Jesus knew, that he was able to
demonstrate all that is good: to feed the hungry, to comfort the sorrowing, to
reform the sinful, to heal the sick, to still the storm, to raise the dead.

Tennyson said: —

"Flower in the
crannied wall,

I pluck you out of
the crannies.

I hold you here, root
and all, in my hand.

Little flower — but
if I could understand,

What you are, root
and all, and all in all,

I should know what
God and man is.

When it becomes
known what the least living thing really is, all reality will be known, and
known to be like God — good. Knowing God as Jesus knew Him, the true
nature, the true essence of everything was known to him, and it was this
knowledge or Science which enabled Jesus to redeem — that is, to rejudge
everything — and thus save the otherwise hopelessly lost, restore the incurably
sick, the seemingly dead.

Christian Science the Knowledge of God

I trust, my dear friends, that
what has been said has prepared you to recognize, to some extent at least, the
nature and the magnitude of the Science discovered and founded by Mrs. Eddy. I
trust that it has prepared you to appreciate the fact that Christian Science is
the knowledge which constituted the Christianity of Jesus; that it is nothing
less than the Science of God, and that for this reason
it is Christian Science and does the works of God as Jesus did them.

What is God?

What, then, according to this
Science, is God? What is the nature of the God known of Jesus the Christ, and
for this reason, the God whom Christian Science teaches us to know and to
worship — to know and to worship in a way that leads to the demonstration of
His goodness, His ever operative power, beneficence, and love? That we may
better appreciate the import of this question, let us again remind ourselves of
the words of our Master, — "The world hath not known thee: but I have
known thee."

What has the world believed God
to be? Anciently, to the seers of Old Testament times, what is now called God —
besides whom, in Bible language, "there is none else" — was known as
power, the only and all power, and as self-existence or Life. But these seers,
distrustful of the ability of their followers to appreciate this metaphysical,
this scientific fact, prohibited the use of at least one of these terms for God
and taught them to call Him Lord or ruler. This, very naturally, to the laity
came to mean a humanlike God instead of the divine source, or Principle of all
true power and life; so that notwithstanding the teachings of the Bible, the
Hebrews of old — in spite of the fact that they were not to make unto
themselves any graven image — mental or otherwise — believed in, and prayed to
an anthropomorphic or human-like God.

Jesus, who knew God as none ever
knew Him, called God "Spirit," meaning Mind. A few understood him. But because he also called God "Father," meaning the one
true source.or progenitor of all, the many, in
time, again mistakenly thought of God as a person. And it is this personal God,
a power or cause that does not in reality exist, — and for this reason cannot
save, — whom Christendom has tried to trust, whom Christendom has entreated to
overcome its ills; of whom Christendom has asked and had not, because it asked
amiss.

Christianity Not Tried

Jesus' purpose was to usher in
and to establish the kingdom or government or God. It was this kingdom which he
taught his followers to pray for and to seek: and all will admit that, if his
teachings were practiced, his spiritual healing would follow as their natural
result; want would be unknown; strife and war would cease, and health, peace,
and blessedness would reign throughout all Christendom.

An eminent clergyman was once
asked whether he did not think Christianity was a failure. After a moment's
pause he replied that he did not know. Being asked how he, a Christian
clergyman, could make such an answer, he said, "Because Christianity has
never been tried." Is not this true? It must be conceded that it is; for
the history of the Christian nations is a history of pride and of want of
faith; of aggression against and resistance to all that is good; a history of
rapine and of destruction written with sword and flame. It is a history of
human domination which found its culmination in the carnage through which the
whole world has just passed, and continues to record itself in an industrialism
which has forgotten that "the labourer is worthy of his hire," and
the employer entitled to a full return of labor for that hire, — an
industrialism in which the motto of nearly all concerned, — of labor and of
capital alike — has been and is to give as little as possible for as much as
possible, instead of giving and doing as much as possible for what each gets.
It is a history which even now is unrolling itself before us in the jarring,
warring strife of self-interest against self-interest, of individual against
individual, or organization against organization, of nation against nation.
With such a history disclosed to our view, can any one say that outside of
Christian Science Christianity is being tried and practiced?

Man's Relationship to God

It has been indicated that the
Christian Science of Jesus consisted of a knowledge of
God. In teaching this Science he taught the universal Fatherhood or causality
of God and defined God to be Spirit, thus Mind; a teaching and definition which
quite naturally mean that man, as the son of God, is the idea or reflection of
Mind, — subject to God, Mind, — and that, in order to come to the estate of man
— to rise to the stature of true manhood — men must be governed by God, Spirit,
Mind, by pure intelligence; that men must seek "first the kingdom of God,
and his righteousness," — and cease from holding themselves subject to
matter, non-intelligence in any form whatever. To those who accept the
teachings of Jesus — to Christians — this in itself should be sufficient to
establish conclusively the fact that Christian Science, which teaches Mind,
God, to be the only cause and man to be the reflection, the idea of Mind,
subject only to Mind, is truly founded upon the teachings of the Christ, —
especially so, since, like Jesus, it demonstrates this doctrine with all manner
of beneficent "signs" following its application.

Mind the Only Cause or Creator

But let us consider this
fundamental doctrine of Jesus and of Christian Science, that there is only one
real cause, — Spirit. Mind, — that this cause is the only legitimate governor
of man in all circumstances, and that this control or government constitutes
"the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," which, in order to obey
Jesus, all Christians must seek, and seek to establish now, here "in
earth, as it is in heaven."

The fact that everything we perceive,
no matter how primary it may seem, is in reality an
effect, hardly needs restatement. Just as definitely is it also known that
every effect must emanate from a cause equal to its production.
Therefore, potentially at least, the primary source or causation of all
existence must include the ultimate possibilities to which its product can
develop or attain: just as this year's fruit bud includes — in embryo at least
— the flower, fruit, seed, and tree which are to come as its resultants. It
means that the primary cause of all that really exists,
must include the intelligence manifested by its highest product, the
enlightened man, plus all his latent possibilities; that nothing short of an
intelligent causation can produce an intelligent effect. The question arises
then, What of such a causation? Could it be
non-intelligent matter — a mist, a gas, an atom, a point of force, an electron,
or some stuff more or less concrete than any or than all of these,
or some admixture of non-intelligent stuff with some unknown non-intelligent,
or even with an intelligent force? Or could an absolutely immaterial
intelligent force ever have created one iota of non-intelligent stuff? There is
no conceivable method whereby any of these things ever could have happened.
Indeed it must be evident that an orderly, purposeful creation, such as we live
in, — a creation including living, moving, thinking beings, the highest of
which are men and women, — must have proceeded, and must continue to proceed
from that alone which could bring it forth, — the one and only creator or
Father of us all, Spirit, Mind, God.

God Both Father and Mother

Recognizing the great fact that
"God created man in his own image, . . . male and female created he
them," and also that God is the all-compassionate, all-loving protector
and provider of all; that "he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on
the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust" alike, Christian
Science declares God to be not only our Father, but our Mother. It thus not
only gives the world an idea of the tender relationship that exists between God
and man, but also the highest concept of God that it is possible to have.

The Christ

Jesus knew God. We have seen that
it was his knowledge of God which enabled him to do the healing and other
mighty works of which his ministry consisted. We have also seen that, like
Christian Science, he declared God to be Spirit, Mind. The only product of Mind
is ideas, and, no matter what we may take a thing to be, or what we may call
it, everything must be an idea to us. Otherwise, we could not think any given
thing to be anything whatever. Right ideas constitute Truth, and — right ideas
being the product of Mind — Truth must be and is the anointed, the approved of
God, "the only begotten" of the one "Father-Mother, God"
(Science and Health, p. 16), Mind. Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free," and so implicitly obedient to Truth
was he, that in speaking of himself as the Christ, he was able to say, "I
am . . . the truth," and "Before Abraham was, I am." What say we
of Christ, then? What both Jesus and Christian Science teach us: He is the
spiritual, the right idea of being, God's Truth, who is with us always; in
"whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," "the
same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."

Science Must Be Learned From Authentic Sources

No teachings except those of the
Bible, upon which Christian Science is founded, can be said to be the same as,
or even parallel to Christian Science. Nor can Christian Science be rightly
learned from any other textbook than the Bible and the Christian Science
textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary
Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, her other writings,
and the authorized Christian Science literature. No one should be led to
believe otherwise by the many psychological methods now being promulgated and
represented as synonymous with Christian Science; nor should any one be led to
believe that suggestion or autosuggestion in any guise has anything in common
with it. All these methods are self-avowedly products of the fleshly or carnal
mind and depend for their results upon this so-called mind, which is
"enmity against God" and cannot know God. If any one of these methods
were synonymous with Christian Science, there would be no need of it; and if
none of them is identical with it, then all such methods are opposed to
Christian Science and contradictions of it.

Mrs. Eddy's Relation to Christian Science

Right here it may be helpful to
say a word about Mrs. Eddy. The right sense of Christian Science can be gained
only as we gain the right sense of Mrs. Eddy and understand her relation to
this Science and its movement. As has been said, Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and
Founder of Christian Science. She never made any but this most modest, claim
for herself, giving God — who through the Christ, Truth, is the sole revelator,
the sole author of all that is good — entire credit for its teachings. The
Bible teaches that "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." In other
words, it teaches that whom the Lord loveth He makes chaste or pure: and Jesus
said that the pure in heart shall see God. We have seen that God is
all-encompassing intelligence or Mind. For this reason God is Love, as we have
seen that He is, and as the beloved disciple declared Him to be; and surely God
— who made all that was made and made all good — loves all. Were this not so,
then God, pure intelligence, would have created and would include in Himself
the absolutely impossible, — something unlovely or unlovable. Only those who
love God, good, are admissive of, and submissive to
Him. Mrs. Eddy loved God. For this reason she was so chastened, made so pure by
Him, that through the right idea of Him she was able to see Him, to discover
Him, and to make God and His Christ known to all who are willing to receive
Christ, Truth. More than this, she so loved God that she was willing to devote
herself entirely to making Him known, so that all might "taste and see that
the Lord is good;" that He is the only healing, saving, regenerating
power. She demonstrated her discovery in healing all manner of diseases. She
taught others to do likewise. She wrote the only textbook of Christian Science,
"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and quite a number
of other books in elucidation of it. She published and was the first editor of
the official publication of the Christian Science organization, The Christian
Science Journal, and gave the movement all of its periodicals, including The
Christian Science Monitor, a clean daily newspaper which has taken its place in
the front rank of the world's great newspapers. Mrs. Eddy's love for God and
for mankind led her not only to found, but also to develop and forever to
protect the movement which she founded by providing it with By-laws, published
in a little book which she named "Manual of The Mother Church, The First
Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts." This book provides
all the By-laws for the conduct and government of every activity of this now
great movement. By-laws which govern its Directors as well as
its humblest members. All of this has made Mrs. Eddy the only Leader of
the movement which she founded, a Leader who asked to be followed only in so
far as she followed Christ. (Message for 1902, p. 4)

Fundamental Teaching

I trust that what has been
presented will at least indicate what the study of Mrs. Eddy's teachings will
make entirely plain: that, as stated on page 468 of the Christian Science
textbook, "all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation," and
that the Mind which is here referred to is God. This great fact is the
fundamental teaching of Christian Science, and it is for this reason that the
paragraph from which I have just quoted is designated by Mrs. Eddy as "the
scientific statement of being" (ibid., p.468). It
is on the basis of the omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence of Mind, God,
that every good work was wrought by Jesus, by his apostles, and early
followers. It is on this basis that all the good works of Christian Science
have been and must continue to be accomplished. It is because of this that
these works are Christ-ian. and not due to the
suggestive, hypnotic, or mesmeric processes of any of the so-called
psychological methods now so generally practiced, not only by physicians, and
under the patronage of churches of other denominations, but by many whose
intents and purposes are altogether unchristian, and sometimes sinister.

The Way to God — Good

"He that cometh to
God," says the apostle, "must believe that
he is." All religions have taught this. All have also taught that God is
omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent, — meaning that God, good, is
everywhere present, all-knowing, all-powerful. But have they taught that because
of this great and all-important truth evil is nonexistent, and therefore
without power? All will admit that they have not. For this reason their
teaching has been a house divided against itself that
cannot stand, and cannot do the Christian healing of which there is such urgent
need. To come to God, that is, to come to the one true good, which, as God,
would necessarily be infinite and include all that is right and possible in the
way of peace, safety, health, ability, prosperity, all that is absolutely true
and consequently absolutely intelligent, and, therefore, good; to come to all
of this, to arrive at our complete good, we must, according to the Bible,
"believe that he is." In other words, we must have, as Christian
Science teaches us, a trustful, constant, firm confidence that all that really
is, meaning all that has presence with us, power over us, intelligence to
enlighten and direct us, is God, and thus good. Is not this the "Acquaint
now thyself with him, and be at peace," and is there any other way in
which a trustful, constant, firm confidence in God can be obtained, except
through learning that in very truth God is the only Mind, the only cause, as
Christian Science declares Him to be?

The Source of Every Good Effect

We all know some things so well
that most of us never give them a thought. For instance, all of us know that
Mind is the source of every incentive, of every volition, impulsion, thought,
reason, judgment, determination, decision; of every design, purpose, plan,
action; of all order, law, and so on. All of us know this, I am sure. It should
not be difficult, therefore, for any one to see very plainly that without Mind
nothing whatever could be or occur. What, for instance, could be or occur
without incentive, volition, or impulsion to bring it into being? What could be
without reason for its existence; without the necessary thought or judgment or
decision to fashion it; without determination, design, purpose, or plan in its
creation? It must be evident that nothing whatever could be or occur without
anyone — yes, without every one — of these essentials, all of which must inhere
in, emanate from, and be projected by Mind. Yet there are those who say in
their hearts that Mind is not primary; that there are things that are not
possible to Mind; and that the righting, the healing, protecting, and providing
for the things that Mind alone could have made, are not possible to Mind
without the aid of unintelligent matter.

Christian Science takes the
opposite ground, and in teaching us to know that "all is infinite Mind and
its infinite manifestation," it teaches us to rely on Mind, God. It
teaches us to surrender to Mind's, God's, fashioning every thought, feeling,
action, and thus to give "to God the things that are God's," and to
surrender as false the things that are false in the sight of God, — the
suggestions of inability, sickness, sin, and their consequent want, and misery
of every kind. It is in this way that Christian Science teaches us to give to
God "the kingdom, and the power, and the glory" that are due Him, and
to do it now, by making Him our whole, sole, and unqualified reliance.

All Desire to Live

You will recall that the passage
quoted from "the scientific statement of being" was that "all is
infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation." If the nature of the
all-existing good, or God, has been somewhat indicated, may we not now ask in a
more specific way, What is the manifestation of God?

The primary desire of all normal
beings is to live. It is the desire of the young and the old; the rich and the
poor; the weak and the strong; the well and the sick. For this reason, the
great quest of mankind has been the prolongation of life into its unending
prolongation, — immortality. Nor is this strange, for to be immortal would mean
to be free from everything that could result in mortality or death. It would
mean immunity from deterioration, from lack of ability, capacity, vigor, and
vitality, from lack of strength, health, and the means to sustain life, — all
of which would have to be maintained in their fullness, and without impairment,
that eternal life might be maintained.

"This Do, and Thou Shalt Live"

When Jesus was asked what one
shall do to inherit eternal life, he answered, "What is written in the
law? how readest thou?" And receiving the reply
that the law was to "love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy
mind; and thy neighbour as thyself" Jesus said, "Thou has answered
right: this do, and thou shalt live." Jesus' questioner and tempter, being
a lawyer, was one well acquainted with the deeper meanings as well as with all
the subtleties of the Judaic doctrines. He knew quite well therefore that to
Jesus God meant the only power and ability to be, — the Principle of right
being. But wishing to justify himself, he said unto Jesus, "And who is my
neighbour?" Then Jesus told that wondrous parable of the good Samaritan, which will live until its lesson shall be
learned. This parable, as all know, tells of a man who went from Jerusalem,
meaning the city of peace, to Jericho, which means fragrance, and thus,
figuratively at least, the pleasure or delight of the senses, as indeed Jericho
was: for it was the resort of pleasure seekers, a place for sports of all
kinds, and thus also the haunt of thieves, robbers, and degraded people. On the
way, this traveler was waylaid, stripped, wounded and left half dead, as most
of us are when we go from Jerusalem to Jericho — from the peaceful habitation
of our rightful home to the habitations of sensual delights. By chance, as the
story goes, a priest came by, but passed on the other side. "Likewise a
Levite," one of the priestly class, one who was
looked upon as orthodox, "came and looked on him, and passed by on the
other side." But a certain Samaritan (one who, although an Israelite, was
not acknowledged as such, but was looked upon as an outcast, one not to be
associated with), as he journeyed, came where the bruised traveler lay, and
"when he saw him, he had compassion on him," and succored him.
"Which now of these three," concluded the Master,
"was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?" "And
he," the lawyer, chastened by what he had heard, said, "He that
shewed mercy," — the one who always has been the "rejected of
men;" the one who reflected, showed forth the one true intelligence or
Mind; the one who expressed the all-tender, the all-merciful, all-just
Father-Mother God, or good, who is Love; the one who was the manifestation of
all that is good, and thus, man. Knowing his questioner had been instructed as
to what he should do to have eternal life — yes, to have all that is included
in that great possession — the perfection, the harmony, the health, the
abundance of providence which we must have in order that we may have eternal
life — Jesus said unto him, "Go, and do thou likewise." May we all do
likewise. May all of us be instructed by the
Christianly scientific teaching as to what God is, and what the manifestation
of God — man — is: for only in this way can Christianity be practiced, only in
this way can we, shall we, seek "first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness;" only in this way can we expect all these things — the
things so universally desired — to be added unto us.

Power of Christian Science to Heal and to Save

Like Jesus, Christian Science has
"not come to destroy, but to fulfill" the law of God and of His
Christ, and thus to fulfill every right, every just law. "Whosoever
therefore shall break one of these (its) least commandments, and shall teach
men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever
shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of
heaven." The right application of the law of God leads to its fulfillment.
The law of God is that man, the reflection of God, must be obedient to God, to
all that is good; for only in this way can he show forth his pure, perfect,
harmonious well-being, and be able to fulfill all right demands upon him. We
have seen that God is Mind, and that God is Love. Mind always expresses its law
and its power through its idea, through Truth. Christian Science is the idea of
God, of Mind and of Love. For this reason it is the law or enforcement of the
power of God; and the right application of it accomplishes the works of God —
heals all diseases and saves to the uttermost.

The reflection of any of you here
in a mirror must be obedient to you: or it could not be your reflection. Just
so the reflection of God, man — which means every one of us — must be obedient
to God, to good, in order to be man. Obedience to God,
then — that is, obedient to all that is right, and good, and beautiful, and
pure — constitutes the true man, and no one can be, nor is, man without this
obedience. It is of every true man, then, that the Psalmist sang, "Thou shalt
not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the
arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor
for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side,
and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. . . .Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my
refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee,
neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall
give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. . . . He
shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I
will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation."

From this it will be seen that
man, as Christian Science declares him to be, is truly under the constant
guidance, protection, government, providence of God: that he cannot be, nor
become, impaired or sick, and that he cannot lack any needful thing. It is by
the true teaching as to what we really are, that Christian Science encourages
and spurs us on to reclaim and to regain ourselves. It not only promises: it
fulfills. Listening to it and obeying its demands, we mount higher, become more
able, and more free: and through complete obedience to
its teachings can that complete freedom for which we long, the kingdom of God
on earth, be gained.

Perfection a Divine Demand

But this, some may object,
requires perfection. Yes; is that requiring too much?

When one is not well, or is
laboring under some inability, does he want only partial, imperfect restoration
— or does he want to be restored to a perfect state?
If to a perfect state, then does not he — does not every one of us — want
perfection? Wherein is the rub, the difficulty, then? In this: that we all want
perfection without a willingness to take the necessary steps that lead to it.
There are those of us who want to attain to a right, a perfect state, but who
want to do so in a false way; who perhaps want to do so by repeating to
ourselves some formula. In other words, many want to take the broad way, the
way of suggestion or of autosuggestion, which leads to destruction, instead of
taking the narrow way of Christ and of his Science, the way of the true
understanding of being, which exposes all suggestions, all autosuggestion, as
unchristian, as deception and self-deception, and so destroys it.

No one feels satisfied with
imperfection. It is for this reason that the Psalmist said, "I shall be
satisfied when I awake with thy likeness," — when I am God-like. Jesus
recognized this universal desire and demand not only as human, but as God's
demand, and for this reason one that must be met. "Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," were his
words: and this, his supreme test, his supreme challenge and demand, required
of his followers what can ultimately, if not immediately, be fulfilled. In the
Christian Science textbook, page 253, Mrs. Eddy again calls attention to this
divine demand: "The divine demand, 'Be ye therefore perfect,' is
scientific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are indispensable.
Individuals are consistent who, watching and praying, can 'run, and not be
weary; . . . walk, and not faint,' who gain good
rapidly and hold their position, or attain slowly and yield not to
discouragement. God requires perfection, but not until the battle between
Spirit and flesh is fought and the victory won."

Suppose that any of you here
intended your child to become a mathematician or a musician. What kind of
mathematician or musician should you want him to become — an imperfect one or a
perfect one? To what kind of school, to what kind of teacher should you have
him to go; to such as would teach him an incorrect, an unscientific system of
mathematics, an imperfect theory of harmony, of composition and technique in
music, a mere belief about music? Should you consider teachers and schools
which constantly limited and cramped his outlook, his attainment, instead of
constantly holding his highest possibilities before him, proper ones for his
advancement, and his highest attainment? Should you not want him to go to one
who encourages him to hitch his wagon to the stars, recognizing that to achieve
at all requires the highest outlook? Such a teacher Jesus was. Such a teacher
Christian Science is: and it is only this kind of teaching that ever can or
will Christianize the world, and ultimately bring in the kingdom of God on
earth. it is only this kind of teaching and this kind
of Christianity that will solve the problems which are disuniting the world;
problems that seem to be industrial, political, or social. It is only this kind
of teaching and this kind of Christianity that ever can or ever will heal all
manner of diseases, and banish want, woe, and immorality, and bring men under
the government of God, under the government of pure intelligence or Mind. It is
only this kind of teaching and this kind of Christianity that will ever solve
the problem as to what man is by arousing us into being God-like, and thus
spiritual and not material.

Present Claims

But do we, the present Christian
Scientists, count ourselves to have apprehended all this? That is, do we count
ourselves as having already attained to this state? No. But we do count one
who, in speaking of herself, said that "today, though rejoicing in some
progress, she still finds herself a willing disciple at the heavenly gate,
waiting for the Mind of Christ" (Science and Health, Pref., p. ix), as the
best Samaritan that has visited our earth since the Master's time; for the wounds
of untold thousands waylaid on their way from Jerusalem to Jericho, have been
bound up by her, and, in the Science of Being, she has left the true, the ideal
remedy and sustenance — the true penny for the keep of each with a landlord
world.

As for ourselves, we rejoice that
we have even begun to make "toward the mark . . . of the high
calling" — the high calling of the Master to be perfect, the high calling
of Christian Science to show forth more and more of the real man — the
reflection of the altogether true, the altogether good, the altogether
intelligent, perfect Mind or God, and to do this by taking the necessary steps
that lead to this desired and desirable state — steps which must be taken in
the way that Christian Science teaches; in the way of obedience and of humility
made plain to us in Jesus' words and works — and particularly, in the
beatitudes.

It is only in this way, the way
in which the Master trod, the way in which our Leader followed him, that
Christianity can be practiced. Not through self-aggrandizement, but through
self-immolation and self-forgetfulness; "not by might, nor by power, but
by my spirit" — the Spirit of Him who is the greatest servant, God; not
through pride, but through purity, meekness, and humility, does the way of
Christ in Christian Science lead us into that felicity, that blessedness and
freedom which can be found only under the government of God — only in "the
kingdom of God, and his righteousness"; that state in which there shall be
no injustice, no strife, no wars; in which — in Bible language, "there
shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any
more pain."